When it rains, it MONSOONS!!!This week our first team of students from the US has been in and ALL over our city! It has been a MAD week, but also extremely full of JOY :) Here's a little glimpse into the madness:-our supervisor had back surgery in Thailand last Saturday, then just came back here last night-we toured Bombay with the team: we almost got swept away by the Arabian Sea when we visited the "sea mosque," and saw the filming of a Bollywood music video at the India Gate-rode camels, elephants, and rickshaws -shopped like crazy -met tons of students-drank dozens of Kappi Nirvanas-eaten all sorts of Indian food, and stayed mostly well from it :)-played at the park with 1000s of people-hosted a party-had a slumber party-got fitted for saris!-toured several temples-visited campuses all over town-hung out with friends-my roomie and i have both felt rough this week, and i've been to the physical therapist most days this week for traction on my back--all i have to say is that the hospitals here are an interesting experience...-and dealt with stuff back home: my grandma has been sick for a while, and she passed away Wed night (US time). it's been hard to deal with all this and losing her, but i have been SO blessed to have 8 extra people to hug on me and encourage me--talk about perfect timing :) I can honestly say i've learned more about myself in the past few days than in quite a while--it's been a great growing experience. So, 1 week down and 1 to go, which promises to be even more full than the first! all i have to say is, bring it on!

Oh, the maddness!This week has been insane! Good, but insane. In fact, it's been so crazy that I'm just going to give the highlights. In the past week, I:-got a pedicure with the ladies-spent an evening with about 20 kids-had 20 people over to our house-went to a massive birthday party for a one year old-hung out with Mandy, a friend from up north, and kicked some booty at Spades :)-shopped like crazy for a dupata (scarf thing), and eventually found one that totally didn't match my outfit-helped a eat a HUGE (and delicious!) dosa!-explored a cool market we didn't know about-worked on my monthly financial report...blah!-spent the night at our friends' house-had two meetings at the hospital (my supervisor is there because of his back)-worked on plans for our 2 teams coming in (the first NEXT weekend!)-visited another friend at the hospital who had a baby!-had a refreshing and AMAZING day of retreat-went to a wedding and ate a ton of mutton biriyani-saw 2 movies (Munich and Mistress of Spices...eh, not exciting)

i'm sure there's more...it's been wild, but also really good, and i'm very excited about the next few months which are going to be FULL of visitors, traveling, and all sorts of big and new things. ah, the adventure of it all :)